Lamb’s quarter is upon us! Early summer is the perfect time to find these tender, delicious wild greens growing as “weeds” in gardens, manure piles and heaping mounds of turned earth. Lamb’s quarter can be eaten raw in salads or cooked as a substitute for spinach.

Shi-Shi restaraunts such as Daniel serve this plant, which literally grows freely all over the place, on its high priced menu. Even in New York City, lamb’s quarter can be found growing in between sidewalk cracks. In New York and want to know how to live off the land that hasn’t yet been paved over? The website, Freegan.info, offers wild foraging tours of New York City on their Events page.

In addition to lamb’s quarter, we have another edible weed growing in abundance around here: chickweed. Chickweed is great in salads and is reminiscent of alfalfa sprouts. It’s great in soups, blanche and add to breads as one would use methi sak or simply cook and serve hot and buttery. I am sure it is full of lots of good minerals and vitamins and best of all, it’s totally free! A naturally replenishable foodsource.